BEHIND THE PORTFOLIO: Senior’s art style evolves as he focuses on ‘humans in space’ for AP Studio Art

AP Studio Art students chose their own concentration and created a series of pieces. They submitted digital and physical portfolios to the College Board, on May 6.

In this series, the artists discuss the year-long endeavor and share some of their pieces. The first is senior Jake Sands.

Q: What was your concentration?

A: Humans in space. It focuses on their humanity.

Q: Why did you choose it?

A: I like space. A lot of people choose their concentrations and lose interest. But space, who gets tired of space? So I thought that was a good choice.

Q: How long did it take you to do your concentration?

A: Three trimesters worth, definitely 50-plus hours.

Q: What was the biggest challenge you faced?

A: Finishing it on time. I had problems with actually doing the (concentration) for at least three of the trimesters.

Q: What media did you use?

A: I used colored pencil, charcoal, pen-and-ink and chalk pastel.

Q: Do you have one or two pieces you’re particularly proud of?

A: I liked the detail pictures of the astronauts that I did in charcoal.

Q: How did you depict humans in space?

A: At first it was space, so I tried to display emotion progression and our innateness to evolve and go forward, as well as love, happiness, sadness, and loneliness.

Q: What’s your style?

A: My style changed. At first I was a pen-and-ink kind of person; now I like drawing with charcoal more, and drawing faces is fun.

Q: Is there a message you’re trying to convey through your concentration?

A: Humans should be in space more, since it’s pretty simple. It took 66 years after the plane was invented to go to the moon, and now we’re just stuck. I just think we need to get people back in space.

Q: What was something you learned by doing this project?

A: It would be nice to do your work ahead of time. The last week kind of sucked. You spent every day, maybe six hours doing art. You have to do it on schooldays as well, and with other stuff going on, it’s not cool.